RPG-ESL-Game-DesignDocument

=Prospero's Island=

Lori Schnaider lorischnaider@yahoo.com Asuman Engin asumanengin@gmail.com Janice Wilhelm jw1120@gmail.com Brian Dickey dickebk@yahoo.com  Full sized version here:

=Contents:= Bottom of Page Instructional Objectives Learners and Context of Use  Competing Products Object of the Game Content Analysis Game Materials Information Sheet Cards Time Required The Rules Motivational Issues Design Process References

You can see how the board game is displayed at TheGameCrafter.com in this web archived file: [NOTE: Some of the formatting is gone, so the page's background will look gray and some other thing are missing, but you can get an idea of what the page's contents looks like]

Instructional Objectives
While playing this board game, learners will develop many language and non-language skills. One of the main learning objectives in teaching conversational skills is getting a student to communicate using the vocabulary and sentence structures they already know. A board game such as this one, will motivate learners to communicate through maintaining a level of curiosity in a non-structured activity which is directed by the learners themselves. This type of communication focuses more on the content rather than on the language. Learners will have to produce a level of communication where the other players can understand their moves which creates a real-world situation in practicing conversational skills. Some of these conversational skills learners will develop include: taking other points of view, learning new vocabulary, asking and answering questions, listening, cooperation and interaction ([|Phillips]). Other communication skills will also include: clarifying oneself by rewording or repeating, using different kinds of sentence patterns, and using persuasion (Maryland Standards). They will also learn other language related skills such as: improving pronunciation, improving fluency in English, following directions, and providing descriptions (of a person, place, or event).

Another learning objective that will be reinforced by this game will be non-language skills. Learners playing this board game will develop skills such as creativity and imagination, predicting consequences, figural and spatial reasoning, leadership, planning, choice and decision making, and prioritizing ([|Phillips])

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Learners & Context of Use
This game is designed for advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) students (located in the U.S. or other countries) to improve their conversational skills through an interactive game, ages 12 and up. The advanced ESL player needs to know and be able to use a basic vocabulary, have a command of English grammar, and knowledge of some American idioms. The game is designed to be used in an educational setting such as a classroom or language lab.

The instructor will introduce the game including its context and rules prior to initial use, and will only need to give them again for subsequent game plays if they are changed or new players are introduced. Teachers may use the game as a catalyst for discussion, additional conversation practice, or as an assessment method.

Competing Products
Simulation and role-playing have been used as standard techniques in ESL classes, and there are a number of descriptions in the literature about different types of role-play games or scripts that can be used in a classroom environment. Here is a list of games that have some similarities to our game:


 * [|Dungeons & Dragons Board Game]
 * [|English Volley - The Fun Game of Prepositions]
 * [|The Island Game]
 * [|Learning to Converse in a Foreign Language--The Reception Game]
 * [|Oxford - the Great Oxford Game of the English Language (1995)]
 * Prophecy Board Game
 * Word Up

Our game is similar to the roleplaying and simulation games such as The Island Game and The Reception Game (Crookall, 1990b and Kaplan, 1997) in that it offers students an opportunity to practice their English skills in a dynamic and yet safe group situation. It also challenges them to cooperate with other students, ask questions, use language creatively, and employ problem-solving skills. It is different from the games that focus specifically on the mechanics of the English language, such as vocabulary or parts of speech, although some of these elements are also represented in this game. Some game items will be modelled on classic D&D game elements.

**Object of the Game**
Players can win the game by capturing Caliban, the main protagonist in the story. The progress of the game lies in creating a story in which the players are characters and active participants. Each scenario may take about 1 - 1.5 hours to play within a classroom setting.

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Content Analysis

 * ~ Content Type ||~ Content Elements (Language & Non-Language Skills) ||~ Game Elements ||
 * ===**Facts**=== || * Vocabulary
 * English idioms || * Game cards with vocabulary hints
 * Idioms expressed in interaction with game NPC's or other players ||
 * ===**Concepts**=== || * Individual differences (strengths and weaknesses)
 * Group dynamics
 * Concept of role-playing || * Types of classes or players (i.e. a cowboy, basketball player, politician, pop star, etc.)
 * Teaming in game
 * Scenes for role-playing in game
 * Types of cards on the board game ||
 * ===**Principles**=== || * Ways to cooperate while working in a group
 * Ways to plan in a group
 * Prioritizing
 * Providing descriptions
 * Ways to listen to others
 * Ways to clarify oneself to others by repeating or rewording
 * Ways to see someone else's point of view
 * Ways of asking a question || * Strategies for interacting with other players, Non Player Characters, and the cards on the board.
 * Choices to make when choosing and creating a character. ||
 * ===**Procedures**=== || * Following directions
 * Following rules
 * Reading and interpretation || * How to follow the directions of the instructor.
 * The procedures for setting up the game, creating your character, and moving through the game itself.
 * How to use the cards in the game ||
 * ===**Processes**=== || * Figural and spatial reasoning || * Understanding how an RPG works; from the type of players involved to their relationships with each other.
 * How chance plays a part in the game when rolling the dice. ||
 * ===**Probabilities**=== || * Not knowing what others in a group are thinking, how they will react, or what they are planning to do
 * The unpredictable decisions needed for a player to create a sentence pattern to answer a question, create a question, and interact in a group
 * Unpredictable kinds of vocabulary that will pop up from playing the game and interacting with others || * The various possibilities of situations created by either the GM, cards on the board, and interaction of the players
 * How the direction or success of each set of events in the game plays out when needing to roll the dice ||
 * ===**Context**=== || * A small group(s) of players communicating in English with each other and the GM.
 * A group situation where the players have to interact with each other using English to make decisions and accomplish various goals. || * An island where people live a modern American lifestyle but where strange things happen in the environment and with people due to Prospero's medieval magical influences and transformations. ||
 * ===**Vantage Points**=== || * Group member or GM
 * Imaginary scene in a story || * Character on an island. ||

Game Materials

 * 1) Game board (image at top of page)
 * 2) Information sheet
 * 3) Rules sheet
 * 4) Two dice (different colors-available through thegamecrafter.com)
 * 5) 5 plastic stands for player cards.
 * 6) Cards:
 * Chance cards
 * NPC (non-player character) cards
 * Language challenge cards
 * Terrain challenge cards
 * Talisman cards
 * Player cards


 * Information Sheet:**



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(see Rules below)
 * Rules Sheet:**


 * Cards**

Here is a slide show with illustrations of the various cards (click on image to navigate through the slides):

Older version of the cards:

These cards correspond with the Chance icons located on many of the spaces on the game board. When a player lands on a space with the Chance icon, they draw a card. The cards contain various directions including drawing other Non-Player Characters, engaging in combat, drawing a language challenge card, finding an item, losing a turn, etc.
 * Chance Cards:**

These cards represent various non-player characters that players might encounter after drawing a chance card. For the most part, they represent a combat challenge. Information on the back of the card is read to determine what happens when a player wins or loses the combat. There is a specialized NPC card to represent Caliban.
 * NPC (Non-Player Character) Cards:**

These cards give an English language challenge or puzzle for the player to solve. The person to their left is required to read them the card once they pull it. This person becomes the player with the card's temporary GM (Game Master). The person whose turn it is must discuss possible options with the temporary GM and other players before giving their final decision to the GM. Information on the back of the card provides the GM with possible outcomes to the player's decisions and also identifies rewards for success or penalty for failure.
 * Language Challenge Cards:**

Players are faced with some sort of challenge in the terrain (e.g., stuck on a cliff with no way down, but with some special equipment that they can use). The player must describe aloud what sort of strategy they would use to get out of the predicament. If the player has a good story, they earn wisdom points (identified on the back of the card).
 * Terrain Challenge Cards**

A smaller version of the player cards represent player tokens and are placed in the card holders to traverse around the board.
 * Player Cards:**

These cards describe each of the four Talismans that the players are searching for.
 * Talisman Cards:**



Time Required
The game would take about 10 minutes to set up. The ESL instructor and players would need to read the Information Sheet and the Rules Sheet prior to starting play, and the ESL instructor could answer any questions at the beginning and during play as needed (15 - 20 minutes). Actual play should take approximately one hour. The game could be repeated in later class sessions since there is enough material for students to find something fresh in it each time.

The Rules
Note: The rules, player, and instruction introduction all make up about seven pages. Therefore it was all placed in a PDF file for viewing.

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Motivational Issues
One of the advantages of using an RPG format in designing a game is the element of fantasy. Through our careful crafting of the story, set up of characters, using various kinds of cards, and design of the game board we have created a fantasy realm from which the learners can immerse themselves. Players can loose themselves in the game and will unknowingly learn conversational skills in the process. Taking on the role of fantasy characters and being immersed in a fantasy world also maintains a level of curiosity and engagement.

We have also tried to use several elements of Keller's ARCS model in our game to engage our advanced English learners.

1-Attention
A high level of PARTICIPATION is required in a RPG (role playing game). In order to maintain this level of participation, learners have to pay constant attention to the materials and flow of the game in order to succeed. The interesting colors and design of the island game board, Chance cards, Language Puzzle cards, Combat cards and so on affect the learners SENSORY STIMULI. These are two strategies we have used in our game to help learners focus on the task.

2- Relevance
The strategy of participation will also help players see the relevance in what they are learning. In this game, learners will use their prior knowledge of English (EXPERIENCE) in order to comprehend new and fluent conversational skills. They will then be able to use these conversational skills with future activities ( FUTURE USEFULNESS).

3-Confidence
Participation is one of the most important yet difficult elements for ELL learners in the learning process due to a lack in confidence. Our game produces a level of confidence as a result of their efforts as an individual or team player (LEARNER CONTROLLED ELEMENTS). Learners can therefore increase their confidence from the success of their own efforts.

4. Satisfaction
In order to continue with a task for any period of time, it must provide an element of satisfaction. The natural element of satisfaction in our game comes from collecting two of the talismans, and winning the game.

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Design Process
Brian set up a wiki page for team members to use for brainstorming, and you can track our team’s design process by viewing our [|discussion board.] We began with research on the use of role-playing games in ESL instruction, and we found that RPGs are often used in ESL classes although not usually as a board game.

Our first thoughts were about modeling the game on the classic Dungeon and Dragons game. For the initial “rapid prototype,” we borrowed the board and pieces from a D&D game and wrote up a short “adventure” that was supposed to be about modern popular culture and supposed to allow the game players to role play popular celebrities and sports heroes. We tested the prototype with a group of three young adults for whom English is a second language and recorded the session so that all our team members could see how the test worked out.

The candid feedback from our testers showed that the game as we originally envisioned it did not work well at all. First of all, the D&D rules ended up being confusing, and we spent a large part of the session just talking about rules and how they should be fixed. Secondly, the adventure was based on American cultural ideas of Halloween, bats and vampires (with a hint about the Twilight series). This did not seem interesting at all to our testers, and the pop culture heroes did not work well either. For example, the athlete with special shoes to “run faster” wasn’t very interesting when it came to skills in combat.

Third and most important, the D&D format requires a Game Master (or Dungeon Master) to manipulate the action, narrate the adventure, play the role of non-player characters, and in general be totally involved all the time. We realized that this would be very difficult for the ESL instructor to play this role in a classroom setting. In addition, one of the testers stated that the GM would have to be “really good” and entertaining in order for the game to work, so the success of the game would rely on the performance skills of the GM.

We decided that the game should stand on its own without so much involvement on the part of a Game Master and that this format wouldn’t be practical for most ESL instructors. We rejected the D&D prototype and “went back to the design board.” We then did some additional research on other role-playing games and began to focus on games that used cards to control game flow instead of a Game Master. We looked at Prophecy and Arabian Nights among other games.

We decided to use more of a standard board with paths, dice and cards to control the flow of the game. In this way the players could also take over the control of the game (for example, one player reading a card to another player instead of the GM narrating the action). The result is described here in our rules, board and sample cards.

Part of the goal in the redesign was to make the rules simpler, so that players wouldn't need to spend the whole session figuring things out. Also we wanted to focus more on providing opportunities for players to use the English language during the game. So there are some specific tasks that require players to "think aloud" (language challenge and terrain challenge cards).

Among the lessons we learned was that it’s really valuable to test with a prototype before you invest too much time in development. Also, you have to be willing to give up an idea if it just doesn’t work well and be ready to go down an alternate path.

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